Requiem For An Order - Moral of the Story

A Glittering Laila-il-Qadir In Sidi's House in the 80's

As far as I knew, Sidi had few, if any, disciples in other Muslim
countries.  

At least by the time he started visiting America.

At my first Laila-til-Qadir at Sidi's House, in the 1980s, dozens if not HUNDREDS of faithful local Muslims linked up in a THUNDEROUS CIRCUIT of Dhikr throughout the whole interior of his house!

I was literally fearful the floor would give out under the weight of so many men stamping the floor with their feet in unison,  "La ILLAHA IL Allah....La ILLAHA IL ALLAH..." 

It was a magical, unforgettable, thrilling moment that I never saw repeated!  

Perhaps because any sort of large public gathering in a private home later became targeted by Israeli Authorities!  

Or maybe because the Temple Precinct/Dome of the Rock was the preferred gathering point for large Muslim crowds, as it offered space for an almost-unlimited number of the Faithful!)

As time passed, I also noticed fewer and fewer local men coming by the house in Jerusalem to speak with Sidi.

Perhaps much of this had to do with the series of wars and Intifadas ('Uprisings') and the consequent break-up of Palestine by the Israelis into dozens of tiny 'zones' cut off from each other by checkpoints and Israeli soldiers.

Not to mention, the dreadful 'Wall' which indiscriminately tore up Arab communities in the interests of Israeli and Israeli Settler 'security.'

These developments made intra-Palestinian travel a time-consuming, exhausting, and often multi-day process.  It deliberately cut off the spiritual 'center' of Palestinian life, Jerusalem, from the rest of the country.

All these new facts on the ground perhaps deprived Sidi of his traditional status as a Sufi Guide amongst a declining base of Palestinian Sufis.

And, even though there was an apparent Islamic revival in Palestine in response to the Intifadas, this 're-Islamitization' usually took the form of an allegiance to the more radical jihadist extremes of Islam, represented by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, rather than the more pacific outlet of Sufism.

In the face of systemic Zionist violence - which some would label 'genocide' - against Palestinians, the most zealous forms of Islam were the predictable forms of response.

Perhaps in response, it seemed that Sidi was shifting his focus in the final years of his life, intentionally toward something akin to the evangelization of North America.  

Leaderless & Deprived of Its Base in Traditional Islam
Sidi's Order Became a Fragrance Of Its Earlier Self.

This is hinted at in my chapter, "Tale of Two Sidis," and in the following epitaph from Sheik Nurideen Jaffee, where he compliments Sidi for having unparalleled success in creating more Muslims.  http://greenmountainschool.org/slides/in-memory-of-a-great-shaykh-in-memory-of-a-long-long-friendship/

This totally makes sense to me as Sidi's primary objective: to pass on the religion of Islam to the West.  As I understand it, it's one's obligation to bring the entire world to Islam, and I think Sidi was, first and foremost, a believing Muslim.

Maybe it even served him as penance to Allah for his personal lapses.

In any case, the breakneck speed of the transition from East to West proved too sudden and unprecedented to allow for even the pretense of continuity of Sidi's Sufi Order after his death. 

His Order died along with him, and he failed to pass it on, although he did pass on the outer Islam to many.

He seemed to enjoy being a spiritual celebrity in the West, although outward celebrity was not typically a feature in the Sufi Order formulation.

His Arabic-speaking company in the West mainly consisted of members of his own family and/or a disparate collection of Arabic-speaking immigrants to the West looking to reconnect with Islam and/or Islamic Sufism in their adoptive country.

In short, whatever was 'Shadhili' in Sidi's earlier group was more of a fragrance than a reality by the time of his passing.  

For whatever reasons - sex and money being the Prime Suspects - Sidi gave up the responsibility of stewardship for the continuity of his Order.

Leaving it rudderless - a decaying caricature of its former self.  Subject to the power struggles of the personalities who wished to claim its remains for their own ends.

Or, perhaps, a spiritually sustaining memory for those (primarily the Europeans) who were separated from it early enough to not witness the disturbing Gotterdammerung* of its American diaspora.

A self-help program which tried to be everything for everybody, and thus became only a memory of an Ancient path.

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*Gotterdammerung - Myth about the twilight/destruction of the Gods.